I was also pleased with the Visual Studio 2008 InstallFests. They worked well attached to the Roadshow series as ways to cap of a day of learning with some fun and networking. Many thanks to Bob for stepping up to help, though he did take undue advantage of hapless noobs in Halo 3. ;)

I'll post a separate follow-up for the InstallFests soon.

Presentations and Content Available

We're leveraging SkyDrive to store our slides and code from the sessions. Bob and I have posted our content to our respective SkyDrives:

BTW, it's easy to get your own SkyDrive with free online space to store your files privately and/or share them with others (named or anonymous.)

Rochester, NY - 12/4

For our first stop, we packed tons of stuff and drove our huge black "government-issue" Suburban through the white-out conditions in the Utica area to make it to Rochester. Our Rochesterian (I'm making up words now) attendees were seemingly unfazed by all the snow, and drifted in for the show.

As with Burlington and Hartford, we had a new venue in Rochester - the RIT campus itself! Thanks to the very helpful Cheryl McLean, everything went smoothly (though Bob and I had to ask a few students where to go.)

Burlington, VT - 12/6

From Rochester, we traveled to less-snowy Burlington, VT (never thought I'd say that.) Our new venue, Vermont Technical College in Williston, was also great. Special thanks to Julie Lerman for introducing us and to Mike Soulia at VTC who took things from there.

Conveniently just down the street from Starbucks (whom we surprised with our morning "5 boxes of coffee" order), we'll be back!

Hartford, CT - 12/10

The following Monday saw ice in Massachusetts, but Bob and myself in Hartford, Connecticut. We had strong attendance at UConn's Hartford-based Financial Accelerator facility.

An interesting L-shaped space, overlooking a simulated trading floor (you can see the top of it in the picture at left,) we had a great show with an engaged audience asking insightful questions and ducking errant orange ball throws in exchange.

Portland, ME - 12/11

On Tuesday we returned to our trusty location at techMAINE (formerly MESDA) in Westbrook. As always, the room was packed with an attentive crowd, more than happy to help exhaust our supply of orange balls.

Great questions and a good day!

Waltham, MA - 12/13

A good (3/4) day of content followed by a not-so-good drive home.

Though we worked through lunch and had planned a 3:00 finish, we still had to cut the day one session short since the snow arrived earlier than originally expected by the weather folks.

THANK YOU to everyone who braved the weather to join us.

Bob and I especially hope that those of you who chose to stay through the last session arrived home safely and with as little hassle as possible.If you had a long drive home, I'll commiserate with you. Things got so bad on Route 20 that I ended up waiting it out halfway home and finally drove in late that night.

Bob plans to record his session on Expression Studio that we had to cut and will post that when it's ready.

I don't have the numbers handy, but I was definitely impressed by how many people came out for the show, knowing snow would join us at day's end. Again, thanks for coming.

Homework (for Me, not You)

I have some questions that I collected from the Roadshow and will post answers as a FAQ later on. If you have any other questions from the sessions, please feel free to ask!

The Next Time...

Look for us to return in March with a brand new name and a few format changes too (but don't worry, our senses of humor will remain intact (well, we think that's a good thing.))

Yeah, traffic leaving Waltham was NUTS! It took me 5 hours to get from Waltham to Marlboro via Route 20, then another hour to make it to Worcester. 6 hours in the car... didn't see that one coming. :-)